FDH Bank Plc enhances its adoption of Chingale Hills Forest environmental conservation by investing 10,000 tree seedlings for Lulanga Hills

Yapuwa plants a tree together with a Chingale Secondary School student 

* The target is to plant over 1 million trees in different places across Malawi

* We are involving members of the communities as well as chiefs and forest officials in order to cover large areas

* And make sure they are guarding each other so that no one should be found illegally cutting down trees

By Victor Singano Jnr, Correspondent

FDH Bank Plc has invested 10,000 tree seedlings for Lulanga Hills in Zomba as part of enhancing its partnership it signed with Malawi Forestry Department in November last year in the environmental and natural resource conservation.

FDH Bank Plc launched the tree planting exercise on Friday at Lulanga Hills in Chingale in the area of Traditional Authority (T/A) Mulumbe in Zomba, which forms part of the Chingale Hills Forest environmental protection area.

The partnership that FDH has for Chingale Hills Forest is through a sponsorship of K10 million per annum for its sustainability drive, in its role to play a vital part in fighting against climate change which occurs due to deforestation.

At the exercise on Friday, FDH Bank Head of Risk and Compliance, Arthur Yapuwa said as a corporate citizen company they realize the importance of planting trees which is also in line with the MW2063 agenda and efforts to ensure that there is sustainable environmental protection.

The initiative is to inculcate the sorrounding communities around Lulanga Hills that they should help in taking care of the environment that sustains them.

“Malawi is facing challenges in terms of deforestation, thus we want to join other organizations who are supporting government to fight against this problem,” Yapuwa said.

“This is just the beginning of our tree planting journey. Our target is to plant over 1 million trees in different places across Malawi.

“This is why we are involving members of the communities as well as chiefs and forest officials in order to cover large areas and make sure they are guarding each other so that no one should be found illegally cutting down trees.

“It is our hope that come five or ten years Malawi will get back to the green environment we all envisage and be free from some of the floods which come because of environmental degradation.

“As you know, any climate change brings the negative impact on our business as a bank since we rely on people,” Yapuwa said.

Assistant district forest officer of the area, Matthews Mkwapatila  hailed FDH Bank for its support, saying the initiative will help to bring the area to its old glory where it was fully covered with trees.

“We’ve been looking for well-wishers who can partner us in this exercise because we were running short of tree seedlings,” he said. So the coming in of FDH is a big boost because we are now assured of fulfilling our objective of replanting more trees at every place where we lost them.”

Present was Senior Chief Mulumbe, who was very thankful to FDH for their support, saying it has come at a right time after all members of his communities were encouraged on the need and benefits of replacing and taking care of trees.

He promised that he will soon introduce stiff by-laws aimed at protecting trees in the area from unscrupulous people while warning that all his village headmen have been apprehend anyone caught cutting down trees and that if they happen to be from their area, his “punishment will be going to the leaders themselves for failing to end the malpractice”.

So far FDH Group has reached out to various stakeholders in donating tree seedlings to them that include Catholic Men Organization (CMO) — an arm of the Catholic Churches of the Archdiocese of Blantyre; Blantyre Synod’s Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) and the Wildlife & Environmental Society of Malawi (WESM).

It also included Mary’s Meals — the primary school feeding programme across the country — whose 10,000 tree seedlings was to inculcate tree conservation culture on young learners.

The tree replacement programmes comes at the backdrop of various initiatives that FDH Group engages in under the banner ‘Our Environment’ sustainability pillar, which include committing to plant 1 million trees by 2024.

This commitment will be done through FDH Bank’s staff members, partners, customers and various stakeholders in support of the World Economic Forum global restorative initiative to grow, restore and conserve 1 trillion trees around the world to restore biodiversity and help fight climate change.

The bank also manages a ‘Be Green Smart Tree Planting’ season initiative in which its staff members plant and nurture 5 trees each in partnerships with NGOs and also sponsors Green Café Program on Zodiak Broadcasting Station.

FDH Bank also sponsors annual Green Awards for best media reporting on environmental conservation facilitated by Association of Environmental Journalists.